The question almost everyone arrives with is short: I have — or I am about to buy — Lithuanian e-resident status. Can I register a UAB and run it from abroad, without ever landing in Vilnius?
Lithuania's own institutions do not currently give the same answer. What follows sets out exactly where they diverge, so you can decide what to do with a €90 fee and a plan.
The signature is the right kind. The Migration Department issues e-residents a card carrying a qualified electronic signature certificate, and a qualified electronic signature is exactly what the Register of Legal Entities requires for an electronic filing.
The Register said in February 2023 that it accepts e-resident cards for registering a company through its self-service system, in an announcement carried by LRT and 15min.
The state's own e-resident information page still disagrees. Read on 27 August 2026, it lists 3 things an e-resident can do today — none of them is founding a company — and puts “steigti ir valdyti įmonę”, to establish and manage a company, among the services still to be opened.
What is not in doubt: the money. A UAB needs €1,000 in cash, paid into a Lithuanian formation account, before it is registered — and no e-resident card obliges any bank to open you that account.
Table of Contents
Can You Actually Do It?
Start with what e-resident status is, because a good deal of confused advice starts by assuming it is Estonia's programme with a different flag on it.
The Law on the Legal Status of Aliens defines an e-resident as a foreigner "who seeks to use administrative, public or commercial services provided in the Republic of Lithuania by electronic (remote) means, and to whom e-resident status has been granted under this Law". The word komercinėmis — commercial — is in the statute. The statute is not the constraint.
The constraint is what has actually been switched on. The Migration Information Centre, the state's own information service for foreigners, publishes the current list. As read on 27 August 2026 it has exactly 3 items:
- Log in to Elektroniniai valdžios vartai — the government e-services gateway
- Log in to MIGRIS through that gateway — the Migration Department's own system, the one you used to apply
- Sign documents with the e-signature — the qualified signature on the card
And immediately after that list, the same page says the range of services will be gradually expanded so as to make it possible, electronically, "to develop business relations, to establish and manage a company, and to carry out financial operations". Future tense, in a document a reader is meant to plan from.
Two state publications, two answers
On 16 January 2023, the Lithuanian state's own portal lietuva.lt wrote that foreign citizens granted the status "will shortly be able to establish a company in Lithuania without travelling here". Future tense again — and the same page recorded that the Migration Department had by then issued more than 300 e-resident cards.
Two and a half weeks later, on 2 February 2023, Registrų centras announced that applications to register a company could now be filed electronically not only by Lithuanian citizens but by EU and EEA citizens, identifying themselves either with an eIDAS-compliant electronic ID from their own country or with an e-resident card.
Those two things are not contradictory on their face — the second is the Register turning on the thing the first predicted. What is odd is that three and a half years later the state's e-resident page still has not been updated to say so.
So the practical position, stated as plainly as the evidence allows: the mechanism appears to exist, and the state's own consumer-facing page still tells you it does not. If you are about to spend money on the strength of it, the sentence that matters is the one at the end of this section.
Ask before you pay
Put the question to Registrų centras in writing before you pay the €90 state fee, and keep the answer. Ask one specific thing: can a holder of a Lithuanian e-resident card, who is not an EU or EEA citizen, log in to the savitarna system and found a UAB using the model incorporation documents? Nothing published resolves that for a non-EU holder, and the e-resident card is the one route into this that is open to non-EU nationals in the first place.
The Card, and Whether It Is the Right Kind of Signature
This is the part that does check out, and it is worth being precise about, because "I have an e-signature" covers several very different objects in Lithuanian practice.
The Migration Department describes the tool it issues to e-residents as a card made of polycarbonate, carrying two certificates: an e-resident identification certificate, and an e-resident's qualified electronic signature certificate. The certificates are valid for no longer than the status itself, and the status is granted for 3 years.
Qualified is the load-bearing word. Lithuanian electronic filing rules do not ask for "an electronic signature"; they ask for one confirmed by a qualified certificate. That is what the card carries, so on the face of it the instrument fits the lock.
It is a card, not an app
The Migration Department tells holders to download and install signing software from nsc.vrm.lt onto the computer of the person signing. That means a physical card, a card reader, and desktop software — not a phone.
This matters more than it sounds. Most Lithuanian online life runs on Smart-ID or Mobile-ID, which are issued against a Lithuanian personal code and a Lithuanian mobile subscription. An e-resident card is not either of those, and a service that only offers Smart-ID and Mobile-ID as login options will not let you in even though your signature is legally qualified. Several Lithuanian banks are in exactly that category — see business bank accounts.
What the Register of Legal Entities Actually Demands
Three requirements are documented, and one of them is the reason this whole question was ever difficult.
1. Electronic incorporation exists, and it runs on model documents
The Ministry of Economy and Innovation states it plainly: an individuali įmonė (IĮ), an uždaroji akcinė bendrovė (UAB) and a mažoji bendrija (MB) may be founded electronically using model incorporation document forms, by logging in to the Registrų centras customer self-service system. Draft your own articles instead of using the model forms and you leave the electronic route.
2. Everything filed electronically must be signed with a qualified certificate
The Register's own handling rules — the Director General's order No. VE-639 (1.3 E) of 18 December 2019, published in the legislative register — say that documents submitted directly by electronic means through the self-service system, using the JAREP service, must be signed with an electronic signature confirmed by a qualified certificate.
3. And that certificate has to carry a personal code
The same paragraph of the same rules adds a condition that is easy to read past: "Kvalifikuoto sertifikato duomenys turi apimti pasirašančio asmens specialų atributą – asmens kodą." The qualified certificate's data must include the signatory's special attribute — the personal code.
Read the date on that rule before you rely on it. The text above is the 2019 original of the handling rules. Registrų centras opened electronic filing to foreign eIDAS identification means in February 2023, and a foreign eID does not carry a Lithuanian asmens kodas — so either the rules were amended, or the Register solves the identifier problem another way. Treat the personal-code condition as the last published text, not as certainly the current one.
There is good evidence the Register did solve exactly that problem, and evidence of roughly when. Between 16 January 2024 and a completion date of 1 June 2026, Registrų centras ran an EU-funded project called E. paslaugų pritaikymas e. rezidentams — "adapting e-services for e-residents" — worth €2,705,614 in eligible costs. Its two deliverables were an interface with MIGRIS to pull a foreigner's name, date of birth and citizenship across and generate a unique identifier code for use inside the Register's software, and UTF-8 encoding throughout so foreign names survive being stored.
That is, almost word for word, the plumbing you would need to build if your rules demanded a personal code and your new users did not have one.
The Register states no position on whether a non-EU e-resident card holder is accepted, and publishes neither its current registration charge nor a consolidated text of its handling rules. That makes the written answer from Registrų centras the thing to get before you spend anything — on acceptance and on the fee alike.
Share Capital: €1,000, in Cash, Before the Company Exists
This part is settled law and it is where remote formation most often stalls, because it needs a Lithuanian account before there is a Lithuanian company to own one.
The Law on Companies, Article 2(4): "Uždarosios akcinės bendrovės įstatinis kapitalas turi būti ne mažesnis kaip vienas tūkstantis eurų." The minimum share capital of a UAB is €1,000. It has been since 1 May 2023; before that it was €2,500, which is why older formation guides and some agents still quote the higher figure.
Article 8 then sets out how it is paid, and contains a trap:
| Rule | Article 8 says | What it means at the minimum |
|---|---|---|
| Where it goes | Initial contributions are paid into the kaupiamoji sąskaita — the accumulative account of the company being formed | You need a Lithuanian account before the company is registered |
| How much of your own | At least 25% of the nominal value of the shares that founder subscribed | €250 on a €1,000 company — but see the next row |
| How much in total | The sum of the initial contributions must be at least the statutory minimum share capital | The whole €1,000 |
| In what form | Initial contributions are in money; only the remainder, after the company exists, may be non-monetary | Cash. Not a laptop, not goodwill |
Why “25%” is the most repeated wrong number about Lithuanian companies
A quarter of €1,000 is €250. But the total-contributions rule bites first, so a founder incorporating at the statutory floor pays €1,000 in full, in cash, before registration. The 25% rule only becomes the operative one above the floor — subscribe eight times the minimum, €8,000, and you pay €2,000 up front. Any source that prints "25% down payment" without the second rule beside it is wrong at the only capital level most readers will ever use.
One provision genuinely helps a remote founder. Article 7(5) says the incorporation agreement gives the right to open the accumulative account at a credit institution or an electronic money institution. An EMI counts. That is not a minor drafting detail: it is the difference between "a Lithuanian bank branch must agree to see you" and "a licensed fintech may be able to do this onboarding remotely". Whether any particular one will is a separate question, and it is the next section.
The Registered Office, and the Trap Underneath It
A Lithuanian company needs a Lithuanian address, and that address is not merely a postal convenience.
Civil Code Article 2.49(1): "Juridinio asmens buveine laikoma ta vieta, kurioje yra nuolatinis jo valdymo organas." A legal person's registered office is the place where its permanent management body is located. Article 2.49(2) then says that where the office shown in the register and the actual location of the permanent management body differ, third parties are entitled to treat the actual location as the registered office.
What you buy from an address provider
- A Lithuanian street address for the register
- Post received and forwarded
- The premises owner's consent, which the filing needs
- Usually a fixed annual fee
What it does not buy
- A permanent management body sitting in Lithuania
- Any protection from Art. 2.49(2)
- Substance, if a tax authority anywhere asks
- A local representative — Lithuania does not require one, so nobody is selling you a statutory role
If you are the sole director and you sit in Lagos, Bengaluru or São Paulo, the company's permanent management body is where you are. That is a real exposure and it is the same exposure a virtual-office Estonian OÜ has — it is not a Lithuanian peculiarity. It is simply not solved by paying for an address.
Do not assume Lithuania copies Estonia here
Estonia requires a company whose management board sits abroad to appoint a licensed contact person — a trust and company service provider, an advocate, a sworn auditor, a non-resident's tax representative or a notary — under § 24 of its Commercial Register Act. The role is narrow: they receive and forward procedural documents, and have no authority to act for the company.
Lithuania has no equivalent. Nothing in the Law on Companies, the Civil Code provisions on the registered office, or the Register's handling rules creates a contact-person office. Lithuania requires an address; Estonia requires an address and a licensed person. If a Lithuanian provider quotes you for a "mandatory contact person", ask them which statute they are invoicing under.
The consent you will be asked for
Where the premises at the registered office are not owned by the founder, the filing needs the premises owner's consent to the address being used — and, on the electronic route, that consent has itself to be signed with a qualified electronic signature. Your address provider therefore has to be able to sign electronically, which almost all of them can. It is worth confirming before you pay, because a provider who can only give you a scanned paper consent has just taken you off the electronic route.
The Bank Account Nobody Will Promise You
A UAB cannot be registered until the share capital sits in a Lithuanian accumulative account. So the bank, not the registrar, is usually the step that decides whether "fully remote" is true for you.
Our business bank accounts page goes through each provider's published residency rule in detail. The summary for a non-resident founder:
| Provider | Published position on a non-resident founder |
|---|---|
| Revolut Business | The person applying must reside in the EEA, Switzerland, the UK or a listed territory |
| Swedbank, SEB, Luminor, Citadele | Online application limited to Lithuanian citizens and residents. SEB and Citadele offer a branch visit or video meeting instead; Luminor publishes no alternative to a Lithuanian-issued Smart-ID or Mobile-ID |
| Paysera | Publishes no residency rule at all — which is silence, not a yes |
Anti-money-laundering law requires an institution to identify a customer and permits remote identification by defined means, but no bank's published terms make the e-resident card one of them, and the Migration Department describes what the card is without saying who must accept it. Get a named provider to say yes in writing before you spend the €90 — Estonia's own far larger programme states outright that "e-Residency status alone does not guarantee access to banking services", and no Lithuanian institution promises more.
File your beneficial owners before you apply, not after. Beneficial owners have to be filed on the JANGIS register, and SEB and Paysera both require it before they will onboard you at all. It is a separate step you complete yourself; nothing on a bank's application form prompts you for it, so an application submitted without it can sit for weeks with no explanation. Do it when you incorporate.
Starting a business in Lithuania?
Registering a UAB, opening individuali veikla, or working out which one you actually want. Get matched with specialists who set companies up for foreigners.
Running It: VMI, Accounts and the Filing Calendar
Formation is the part people research. The ongoing obligations are the part that costs money every month, and they do not care where the director lives.
Corporate income tax
| Rate | Applies to | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| 17% | Standard rate on taxable profit | Tax periods beginning in 2026 and later |
| 7% | Small companies | Income not above €300,000, and the entity is outside the related-party tests in Art. 5(3) |
| 0% | First 2 tax periods | Income in each not above €300,000, all shareholders are natural persons, and for 3 consecutive periods there is no cessation, liquidation, reorganisation or transfer of shares to new shareholders |
The 0% relief is the one worth planning around, and the condition that most often breaks it is the last one: bring in a new shareholder inside the window and you lose it retrospectively. Note also that "all shareholders are natural persons" rules out the common holding-company structure.
The filing calendar
| Obligation | When, and what to know |
|---|---|
| Annual corporate income tax return, form PLN204 | Due, and the tax paid, by the 15th day of the 6th month of the following tax period — 15 June on a calendar year. A mažoji bendrija files the same form; an individuali įmonė files PLN204A. |
| Advance corporate income tax, form FR0430 | Only once the previous period's taxable income exceeds €300,000. Below that, there is nothing to do. |
| Annual accounts approved | By the general meeting, within 4 months of the financial year end for a UAB — a mažoji bendrija gets 3. |
| Annual accounts filed with the Register | Within 30 days of approval. This is a public filing: your accounts become readable by anyone. |
| VAT, once you cross the threshold | Registration is required at €45,000 of turnover on a calendar-year basis, and the standard rate is 21%. See VAT in Lithuania. |
Accounting is not optional and not cheap
A UAB keeps double-entry books and produces a statutory set of financial statements. In practice that means a Lithuanian accountant on a monthly retainer from the month you incorporate, whether or not you have traded. This is the cost line that most first-time founders leave out of the plan, and it is usually larger than the entire cost of formation.
The comparison that matters is annual, not one-off
A €90 state fee and a €1,000 capital payment are one-off. The registered address, the accountant and the filings recur every year for as long as the company exists — and a dormant UAB still files. Before you form anything, price twelve months of that, and compare it against individuali veikla, which has no share capital, no annual accounts filing and far lighter bookkeeping.
What a Non-Resident Director Actually Faces
Four things, and only the first is widely explained.
The UAB is resident in Lithuania and pays Lithuanian corporate income tax on its profit. Whether you are a Lithuanian tax resident turns on the day-count tests in the Income Tax Act — 183 days in one tax period, or 280 days across two consecutive periods with at least 90 in one of them. E-resident status does not touch either test. Owning a Lithuanian company does not make you Lithuanian for tax, and being outside Lithuania does not exempt the company.
Dividends paid out are taxed at 15%, subject to any treaty between Lithuania and where you live. See income tax.
If you manage the company from your kitchen table in another country, that is where its permanent management body is. Lithuanian law lets third parties treat that place as the registered office. Many tax systems go further and treat a company managed from their territory as tax resident there. A Lithuanian company run entirely from abroad can end up with two authorities interested in it.
Your qualified signature is legally good. It is also on a card that needs a reader and desktop software, and a large amount of Lithuanian online infrastructure offers Smart-ID and Mobile-ID and nothing else. Expect to discover this provider by provider rather than from any published list.
The state's own wording: "užsieniečiui suteiktas elektroninio rezidento statusas nesuteikia jam teisės atvykti į Lietuvos Respubliką ar bet kurią kitą Šengeno erdvės valstybę" — e-resident status gives no right to enter Lithuania or any other Schengen state. If you need to be physically present, you need a visa; if you want to live here on the back of a company, that is the business residence permit, which is a completely different application with a €28,000 equity test.
If the Answer for You Is No
There are four alternatives, and one of them is a competitor's product. Better to weigh them now than after spending the fee.
| Route | What it solves | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Power of attorney to a Lithuanian formation agent | Removes the identification problem entirely — the agent files and signs in Lithuania. The notarised, apostilled power of attorney is made where you are | An agent's fee, and the legalisation lead time on the power of attorney |
| Mažoji bendrija (MB) instead of a UAB | No share capital requirement at all, lighter accounting, and it is on the Ministry's list of forms that may be founded electronically with model documents. Members must be natural persons | It is unfamiliar to counterparties outside Lithuania, and it is not a limited company in the shape investors expect |
| Individuali veikla | If you are one person selling services, you may not need a company at all — see self-employment | It requires a Lithuanian tax identity, so it is generally for people who are here |
| Estonia's e-Residency | A programme where founding and running a company online is the documented, working core of the product rather than a planned expansion | €150 state fee, €265 to register the company, and a mandatory licensed contact person — the full comparison |
The unglamorous route is usually the fast one. A power of attorney to a Lithuanian agent is how most foreign founders have incorporated in Lithuania for twenty years. It is not elegant, it costs more than doing it yourself, and it works today with no dependency on which state publication you believe. If your objective is a trading Lithuanian company rather than a digital-identity experience, price it before you price the €90 card.
Common Mistakes
Assuming Lithuania is Estonia with a different flag
Different statute, different register, different bank market, different maturity. Estonia's contact-person rule, its provider marketplace and its 0% share capital are Estonian law and Estonian ecosystem. None of them exists here.
Paying the fee before checking the bank
The registrar is not the bottleneck. The account that has to hold €1,000 before the company exists is. Get a provider to say yes first.
Budgeting the €250 instead of the €1,000
The quarter rule is real and it is not the operative rule at the statutory floor. Budget the full minimum, in cash.
Drafting bespoke articles
Custom articles take you off the electronic route, which runs on the model forms. Decide which you want before you start.
Treating a registered address as substance
It satisfies the register. It does not move your permanent management body, and it does not answer a foreign tax authority.
Forgetting the annual cost of a dormant company
Accounts still get prepared, approved and filed. A UAB you stop using is a UAB you keep paying for until you wind it up.
Reading a 2021 or 2022 guide
Share capital changed on 1 May 2023, electronic filing opened to foreign identification means in February 2023, and corporate tax rates changed for 2026. Anything older is wrong on at least one of those.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I register a UAB entirely remotely with Lithuanian e-resident status?
Probably, but Lithuania's own publications do not agree. Registrų centras announced in February 2023 that its self-service system accepts e-resident cards for registering a company, as reported by LRT and 15min from the Register's release. The state's e-resident information page, read on 27 August 2026, still lists only three live services — logging in to the government e-services gateway, logging in to MIGRIS, and signing documents — and still describes establishing and managing a company as a service to be opened later. Ask Registrų centras in writing before you pay the €90 fee.
Is the e-resident signature good enough for the company register?
On its face, yes. The Migration Department issues a polycarbonate card carrying an e-resident identification certificate and an e-resident's qualified electronic signature certificate, and the Register's handling rules require an electronic signature confirmed by a qualified certificate. The complication is a further condition in the same rule that the certificate's data include the signatory's personal code — text that appears in the 2019 original of those rules, which is the last published version.
How much share capital does a UAB need and when do I pay it?
€1,000, and before the company is registered. Article 8 of the Law on Companies requires each founder's initial contribution to be at least a quarter of the nominal value of the shares they subscribed, and requires the total of the initial contributions to be at least the statutory minimum share capital. At the €1,000 floor the second rule decides it: you pay the whole €1,000, in money, into the company's accumulative account. Non-monetary contributions are only allowed for the remainder, after the company exists.
Do I need a Lithuanian bank, or will a fintech do?
Article 7(5) of the Law on Companies says the incorporation agreement gives the right to open the accumulative account at a credit institution or an electronic money institution, so a licensed EMI qualifies. Whether a particular one will onboard you is separate. Revolut Business requires a applicant resident in the EEA, Switzerland, the UK or a listed territory. Swedbank, SEB, Luminor and Citadele limit online applications to Lithuanian citizens and residents. Paysera publishes no residency rule, which is silence rather than a yes.
Does Lithuania require a local contact person, like Estonia does?
Lithuania imposes no such requirement. Estonia requires a company whose management board is abroad to appoint a licensed contact person under section 24 of its Commercial Register Act, and restricts the role to trust and company service providers, advocates, sworn auditors, non-residents' tax representatives and notaries. Nothing in Lithuanian law creates an equivalent office. Lithuania requires a registered office address in Lithuania; it does not require a licensed person to sit behind it.
Does a registered office address satisfy Lithuanian law on its own?
For the register, yes. Substantively, be careful. Civil Code Article 2.49(1) defines the registered office as the place where the company's permanent management body is located, and Article 2.49(2) entitles third parties to treat the actual location of that body as the registered office where the two differ. A director managing the company from another country places the permanent management body in that country, whatever the register says.
What tax will my Lithuanian company pay?
Corporate income tax at 17% on taxable profit for tax periods beginning in 2026, or 7% for a small company whose income does not exceed €300,000 and which is outside the related-party tests. A qualifying new company pays 0% for its first 2 tax periods, provided income stays under the same ceiling, all shareholders are natural persons, and there is no cessation, liquidation, reorganisation or transfer of shares to new shareholders across 3 consecutive periods. Dividends are taxed at 15%.
What are the filing deadlines?
The annual corporate income tax return, form PLN204, is due and the tax paid by the 15th day of the sixth month of the following tax period — 15 June on a calendar year. Advance corporate income tax on form FR0430 only starts once the previous period's taxable income exceeds €300,000. Annual accounts must be approved within 4 months of the financial year end for a UAB, or 3 for a mažoji bendrija, and filed with the Register of Legal Entities within 30 days of approval.
Does e-resident status let me come to Lithuania or live here?
No, and the state says so directly: e-resident status granted to a foreigner does not give the right to enter Lithuania or any other Schengen state. It is a remote identity, not an immigration status. If you want to live in Lithuania on the strength of a business, that is the business residence permit, a separate application with its own equity test.
How many Lithuanian e-residents are there?
Nobody in Lithuania publishes the number. The only Lithuanian figure published anywhere is on the state portal lietuva.lt in January 2023, which said the Migration Department had issued more than 300 e-resident cards. The often-quoted range of 5,000 to 7,000 is an estimate published by Estonia's competing programme about Lithuania, not a Lithuanian statistic.
Would an MB be easier than a UAB?
In several ways, yes. A mažoji bendrija has no minimum capital requirement, lighter accounting, and appears on the Ministry of Economy and Innovation's list of forms that can be founded electronically using model documents. The trade-offs are that its members must be natural persons and that it is an unfamiliar vehicle to counterparties and investors outside Lithuania. It is worth asking about before defaulting to a UAB.
Can I use a power of attorney instead?
Yes, and it is how most foreign founders have done this for years. You give a Lithuanian formation agent a notarised and apostilled power of attorney made where you are, and they file in Lithuania on your behalf. It costs more than doing it yourself and the legalisation takes weeks, but it does not depend on which state publication about e-residency turns out to be current.
Related Guides
Price the company before you count on the card
A UAB has a registration cost and a monthly accounting cost, and neither changes with how you signed the documents. The formation-cost page puts the state fees and the agents' packages side by side.
Disclaimer
General guidance, not legal or tax advice. Company law, registration procedure and tax rates change, and the position on what an e-resident card is accepted for is unsettled on the published record. Confirm with Registrų centras, VMI and your chosen bank in writing before you commit money.